In recent years, a bipedal mobile robot, which has been planned to be in a practical use by the present applicants and the like, moves by an action for making two legs to alternately lift and land like a human. Further, in the present specification, “movement” of the bipedal mobile robot includes a movement from one place to another place, as well as such an action as turning almost in the same place to change orientation of the robot. In this turning action, a moving direction of the robot means a turning direction such as a clockwise direction and a counterclockwise direction. Additionally, “a stopped state” of the bipedal mobile robot is a state that the movement of the robot is not performed, so that a state with the two legs stopped as well as such a state as the robot is marching in the same place without changing orientation are included.
The present applicants attempt to establish a system for moving such a bipedal mobile robot by a remote controller having a manipulator lever such as a joystick. In this situation, for example, it is possible that a moving direction and a stride of the robot is determined in real time depending on a manipulating direction and a manipulation amount of a manipulator lever of a remote controller, thereby activating the legs of the robot according to these determined moving direction and stride.
However, in such a remote control device, when an attempt is made to move the robot to a desired position, the manipulator lever has to be operated by a manipulation amount corresponding to a moving amount from a current position to the desired position, but this manipulating amount is difficult to delicately adjust. Accordingly, for example, it is difficult to operate such a manipulator lever so that the robot is moved by a relatively minute amount (such a moving amount as a movement can be made by one step) from one place to another place and stopped. Additionally, even when a place to be reached last is known, the manipulation amount of the manipulator lever is difficult to accurately adjust while moving the robot toward the place, and as a result, it is difficult to make the robot reach the desired place.
In light of such a background, it is an object of the present invention to provide a remote control device that can surely move a bipedal mobile robot to a desired position by a relatively simple operation.